This invention relates to forming templates which have a primary utilization in formation of molds and dies by an etching process, and in particular to a method of forming a template which is either larger or smaller than the sample of the product from which the template is prepared.
In the manufacture of metal molds or dies, one process for their manufacture includes the use of a template prepared from a sample of the product to be manufactured. Such a process is described in detail in my co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 850,769, filed Apr. 11, 1986.
Frequently, although a template which exactly duplicates the detail of the sample is required, it is desired that the template be of either larger or smaller dimension than the sample. In such cases, in the past preparing such a template required manually duplicating the sample by a skilled artisan. Such a procedure, in addition to being extremely time consuming and costly, is inexact because of introduction of possible human errors. Other times, forgoing a template, tool steel molds are directly manually manufactured to the required size using a sample of the product as a guide, but again, the process is labor intensive, costly, and susceptible to human errors.